After being fired from a dead-end government job in Chicago, Jimmy Sparrow retreats to Indiana and tries to rediscover his Potawatomi Indian roots. But it's the 1980s, an era hostile to Thoreau-like values. As America overdoses on success and ambition, Jimmy secedes from the work world to become the unofficial mayor of a small apartment building filled with misfits. "The Sun Tea Chronicles" is a collection of sharply etched vignettes with a comic undertone.